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PANJSHIR PROVINCE, Afghanistan –Surrounded by mountains, Anaba District has a large echo effect when a gun blast sounds in the valley. The sound of weapons being discharged over and over also brings many curious onlookers.
More than 30 Afghan National Police watched from a mountainside near a small arms range as several U.S. military and ANP leaders fired M4 carbine rifles at 300 meter targets March 10.
“The ANP joined us for our semi-annual standard weapons qualification,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Anthony McDavitt, Task Force Red Bulls Embedded Training Team engineer and Police Mentoring Team non-commissioned officer in charge. “Someday they’ll use the M16, like Afghan National Army has, so familiarization can only help.”
He said firing the M4 rifle is similar to the M16.
The ANP, including Afghan Brig. Gen. Qasim Jangalbagh, the Panjshir Provincial Police Chief, observed, the Panjshir ETT and Law Enforcement Professionals performed primary marksmanship instructions before zeroing their weapons.
“Even though I shoot well with the AK-47 rifle, I really enjoyed learning about the M16 rifle and shooting it,” said Afghan Col. Muhammad Dost, Panjshir’s Operation Control Center Provincial deputy commander.
McDavitt, a Davenport, Iowa, native, and marksmanship instructor, ran the range. Along with assisting his team with their semi-annual qualifications, McDavitt will also assist the ANP Basic Academy cadre once a month training cadets at a weapons qualification range.
“The PMT will be joining me in helping implement the Ministry of Interior qualification standards and the Academy cadre’s qualification standards for training the cadets,” McDavitt said.
The ANP are eager for McDavitt’s involvement in the training, said Dost.
“It will be a great benefit to have Sgt. McDavitt help train at the Academy range. He has a lot of knowledge and experience about the range operations. The ANP soldiers are eager to learn,” Dost said.
The maintenance standard and weapons system for the AK-47 rifle is very different from that of the M16 series, said McDavitt.
At the end of the day, as the brass from the ammo was picked up, discussions and jokes commenced about the several hours of training and the results of the bullet-ridden targets.
“Even though the weapons and training are different, at the end of the day, we’re able to see the great relationship develop between the Afghan forces and our U.S. military members,” said McDavitt. “We get to bond at the range for a few hours and we all leave with the satisfaction of knowing our counterparts and weapons a little better.”
| Date Taken: | 03.19.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.18.2011 16:32 |
| Story ID: | 67322 |
| Location: | PANJSHIR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 263 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, Afghan police, U.S military bond at Panjshir range, by SSgt Amber Ashcraft, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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